Posted tagged ‘costa cofee’

Personally I am a big fan of old school gentlemanly conduct – holding doors open for ladies/the elderly, helping mothers with their prams etc. It helps offset the fact that on a daily basis I swear like a trooper with Tourette’s (which must be a bloody awful affliction incidentally).

I experienced one of these heartwarming moments the other day when I visited Tart, a cafe and foodstore on the Gloucester Road in Bristol. Jane and I popped in one Sunday morning for breakfast – it does decent locally sourced fry-ups, excellent pancakes with bacon and truly superb cheese scones – and it was heaving.

Tarts at, erm, Tart. They also do excellent cheese scones, amongst other things

This is a good sign on its own but made all the better because Tart has squatters next door.

It’s a classic strong-arm attempt by high-street bullies. When the appeal comes before the planning inspector they want him/her to think “Well, it is open now, may as well let them stay”. Which would be bad.

But there is a happy ending to this first battle (the war still rages). While Tart does a roaring trade, Costa, to my eye, is struggling with only a handful of people in every time I walk past.

And to warm the cockles of even the most seasoned of hacks, when I paid the breakfast bill in Tart and said how great it was that they were busy and Costa empty, the waitress replied: “Yes, we’ve actually been doing better business since it opened.”